The campaigns of former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have reached somewhat of an impasse over debate rules ahead of their Sept. 10 debate on ABC, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.
According to the source, Trump's team wants microphones muted when the other person is not speaking, as was the case during the first debate with President Joe Biden. According to a senior campaign official, the Harris campaign is requesting that ABC and other networks that want to host a potential October debate keep the microphones on, which marks a change from the June debate when the then-Biden campaign wanted microphones muted except when it was the candidate's turn to speak.
“We have told ABC and other networks that may wish to host a potential October debate that we believe both candidates' microphones should be live throughout the broadcast,” Brian Fallon, senior communications adviser for the Harris campaign, said in a statement.
Trump's campaign has argued that when they agreed to the ABC debate placing Harris at the top of the ticket, they agreed to the same guidelines as previous debates.
The Harris campaign says the muted mics are the only controversy, and while they don't mind the opening statement, they haven't weighed in on it.
In a social media post Sunday night, Trump questioned whether he should participate in the ABC debate, criticizing the network's coverage, which he called a “panel of Trump haters,” and asking, “Why would I debate against Kamala Harris on that network?”
The microphone rule controversy was first reported by Politico.